Cheryl Strayed

For months, the literary website the Rumpus has been hosting its own advice column called Dear Sugar, in which an anonymous novelist served up words of wisdom to anyone who wrote in a letter. The responses were thoughtful and witty and soon had everyone wondering who this literary sage could be. The secret is finally out—Sugar was none other than Portland-based author Cheryl Strayed. Tonight she reads from her memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which tells of her harrowing solo journey on the Pacific Crest Trail, from the Mojave Desert up to Washington State, where she faced extreme weather, rattlesnakes, and black bears. ANGELA ASHMAN